Golding & Golding – U.S. and International Tax Lawyershttp://www.GoldingLawyers.com

If you are a U.S. person (such as a US citizen, Legal Permanent Resident, or Foreign National subject to US tax) you are required to report your worldwide income.

It does not matter whether you reside in the United States and earn income abroad, or whether you live abroad and earn income solely from non-U.S. sources.

The United States is one of the few countries in the world that taxes individuals on their worldwide income, which can have a significant impact on certain non-U.S. persons.

Example: Dean is originally from Hong Kong. He relocated to the United States 10 years ago but still maintains various bank accounts and investments in Hong Kong. He never reported this information to the United States, because he never knew he had to. Moreover, in Hong Kong these “passive earnings” are not taxed and therefore once Dean includes this income in his US tax return, he will begin paying significantly more tax than he ever imagined on income which is otherwise not taxed at source.

Interest Income

The two most common types of passive income are interest Income and dividends. Interest income is generally treated the same as regular income. For example, let’s say Dean also has $100,000 in a U.S. Wells Fargo account earning 2% interest. At the end of the day, Dean will receive a 1099 reflecting around $2000 in accrued interest for the year.

Dean will include this interest income on as US tax return, 1040 line 8. That income will be included in his overall income and taxed at the same rate as his regular income.

Dividend Income

Dividend income is a bit different. At it’s most basic definition, a dividend is generally when a stock or security pays a certain amount each year. In other words, Dean may hold dividends in Hong Kong that pay $25,000 a year due to the fact that the company did well and is therefore distributing additional income to the owners of the shares.

Regular dividend income is usually taxed at the same rate as other general income the taxpayer earns. But, qualified dividend income is different. A qualified dividend is taxed at a much lower rate. For example, in 2016 the highest ordinary income bracket was 39.6% and an ordinary dividend would be taxed at that rate. In sharp contrast, a qualified dividend is much more beneficial to the taxpayer (and of course, certain exceptions and exclusions apply)

If a person falls within the two lowest tax brackets, there is no tax on most qualified dividends. In all other tax brackets, the qualified dividend is taxed at a 15% rate — although if a person is in the highest tax bracket (39.6%) the qualified dividend rate is 20%.

As you can see, determining whether a dividend is a qualified dividend or non-qualified dividend can have a huge impact on tax liability.

Foreign Dividend Income

The majority of qualified dividends are US-based qualified dividends. If a Foreign Company with Foreign Sourced dividends wants to try and categorize its dividends as “Qualified Dividends, the United States requires the foreign company to meet very strict requirements to do so. Why? Because the IRS does not want individuals investing overseas solely for the purpose of achieving qualified dividend rates, when the foreign company may not actually be issuing qualified dividends (and presumably for the U.S. companies to lose out on the potential investments).

In order to qualify for a foreign qualified dividend, the following must be met (though it should be noted that this is not the full requirements to qualify as a qualified dividend, but rather the additional requirements for a foreign dividend). As provided by the IRS:

Qualified Foreign Corporation

A foreign corporation is a qualified foreign corporation if it meets any of the following conditions.

The corporation is incorporated in a U.S. possession.

The corporation is eligible for the benefits of a comprehensive income tax treaty with the United States that the Treasury Department determines is satisfactory for this purpose and that includes an exchange of information program. For a list of those treaties, see Table 8-1.

The corporation does not meet (1) or (2) above, but the stock for which the dividend is paid is readily tradable on an established securities market in the United States. See Readily tradable stock, later.

Exception

A corporation is not a qualified foreign corporation if it is a passive foreign investment company during its tax year in which the dividends are paid or during its previous tax year.

Readily Tradable Stock

Any stock (such as common, ordinary, or preferred) or an American depositary receipt in respect of that stock is considered to satisfy requirement (3) under Qualified foreign corporation, if it is listed on a national securities exchange that is registered under section 6 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 or on the Nasdaq Stock Market. For a list of the exchanges that meet these requirements, see www.sec.gov/divisions/marketreg/mrexchanges.shtml.

Dividends that are not qualified dividends

The following dividends are not qualified dividends. They are not qualified dividends even if they are shown in box 1b of Form 1099-DIV.

– Capital gain distributions.

– Dividends paid on deposits with mutual savings banks, cooperative banks, credit unions, U.S. building and loan associations, U.S. savings and loan associations, federal savings and loan associations, and similar financial institutions. (Report these amounts as interest income.)

– Dividends from a corporation that is a tax-exempt organization or farmer’s cooperative during the corporation’s tax year in which the dividends were paid or during the corporation’s previous tax year.

– Dividends paid by a corporation on employer securities held on the date of record by an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) maintained by that corporation.

– Dividends on any share of stock to the extent you are obligated (whether under a short sale or otherwise) to make related payments for positions in substantially similar or related property.

– Payments in lieu of dividends, but only if you know or have reason to know the payments are not qualified dividends.

– Payments shown in Form 1099-DIV, box 1b, from a foreign corporation to the extent you know or have reason to know the payments are not qualified dividends.

Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Options

If you are out of compliance for failing to report foreign income, the IRS may levy extensive fines and penalties against you, your business, and your estate. The IRS has developed an offshore disclosure program to assist individuals to get into compliance. There are various different programs depending on whether the person is an individual or business, and/or whether the person was willful or non-willful.

A summary of offshore disclosures provided below:

Offshore Disclosure Options

Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Tax law is very complex. There are many aspects that go into any particular tax calculation, including the legal status, marital status, business status and residence status of the taxpayer.

It is very important to ensure that if you are required to file a U.S. tax return, that you do so timely, and on an annual basis. The failure to file a tax return or pay outstanding tax liabilities may result in devastatingly high penalties – ranging from a warning letter all the way up to tax liens, tax levies, seizures, and criminal investigations.

Golding & Golding – Offshore Disclosure

At Golding & Golding, we limit our entire practice to offshore disclosure (IRS Voluntary Disclosure of Foreign and U.S. Assets). The term offshore disclosure is a bit of a misnomer, because the term “offshore” generally connotes visions of hiding money in secret places such as the Cayman Islands, Bahamas, Malta, or any other well-known tax haven jurisdiction – but that is not the case.

In fact, any money that is outside of the United States is considered to be offshore; the term offshore is not a bad word. In other words, merely because a person has money offshore (a.k.a. overseas or in a foreign country) does not mean that money is the result of ill-gotten gains or that the money is being “hidden.” It just means it is not in the United States.

The Devil is in the Details…

If you do have money offshore, then it is very important to ensure that the money has been properly reported to the U.S. government. In addition, it is also very important to ensure that if you are earning any foreign income from that offshore money, that the earnings are being reported on your U.S. tax return.

It does not matter whether your money is in a country that does not tax a particular category of income (for example, many Asian countries do not tax passive income). It also does not matter if you are a dual citizen and/or if that money has already been taxed in the foreign country.

Rather, the default position is that if you are required to file a U.S. tax return and you meet the minimum threshold requirements for filing a U.S. tax return, then you have to include all of your foreign income. If you already paid foreign tax on the income, you may qualify for a Foreign Tax Credit. In addition, if the income is earned income – as opposed to passive income – and you meet either the Bona-Fide Resident Test or Physical-Presence Test, then you may qualify for an exclusion of that income; nevertheless, the money must be included on your tax return.

What if you Never Report the Money?

If you are in the unfortunate position of having foreign money or specified foreign assets that should have been reported to the U.S. government, but which you have not reported — then you are in a bit of a predicament, which you will need to resolve before it is too late.

As we’ve indicated numerous times on our website there are very unscrupulous CPAs, Attorneys, Accountants and Tax Representatives who would like nothing more than to get you to part with all of your money by scaring you into believing you are automatically going to be arrested, jailed or deported because you have on reported money. While that is not the case, depending on the facts and circumstances of your specific situation, you may be subject to extremely high fines and penalties.

Moreover, if you are knowingly or willfully kept your foreign accounts, foreign money, and offshore assets hidden overseas, then you may become subject to even higher fines and penalties…as well as a criminal investigation by the special agents of the IRS and/or DOJ (Department of Justice)

Getting into Compliance

There are five main methods people/businesses use to get into compliance. Four of these methods are perfectly legitimate as long as you meet the requirements for the particular mechanism of disclosure. The fifth alternative, which is called a Quiet Disclosure a.k.a. Silent Disclosure a.k.a. Soft Disclosure is ill-advised as it is illegal and very well may result in criminal prosecution.

We are going to provide a brief summary of each program below. We have also include links to the specific programs. If you are interest, we have also prepared very popular “FAQs from the Trenches” for FBAR, OVDP and Streamlined Disclosure reporting. Unlikes the technical jargon of the IRS FAQs, our FAQs are based on the hundreds of different types of issues we have handled over the many years that we have been practicing international tax law, and offshore disclosure in particular.

After reading this webpage, we hope you have developed a basic understanding of each offshore disclosure alternative, and how it may benefit you to get into compliance. We do not recommend attempting to disclose the information yourself as you may become subject to an IRS investigation insofar as you will have to answer questions directly to the IRS, which you can avoid with an attorney representative.

If you retain an attorney, then you will get the benefit of the attorney-client privilege which provides confidentiality between you and your representative. With a CPA, there is a relatively small privilege which does provide some comfort, but the privilege is nowhere near as strong as the confidentiality privilege you enjoy with an attorney.

Since you will be dealing with the Internal Revenue Service and they are not known to play nice, or fair – it is in your best interest to obtain an experienced Offshore Disclosure Attorney.

OVDP is the Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program — a program designed to facilitate taxpayer compliance with IRS, DOT and DOJ International Tax Reporting and Compliance. It is generally reserved for individuals and businesses who were “Willful” (aka Intentional) in their failure to comply with U.S. Government Laws and Regulations.

The Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program is open to any US taxpayer who has offshore and foreign accounts and has not reported the financial information to the Internal Revenue Service (restrictions apply). There are some basic program requirements, with the main one being that the person/business who is applying under this amnesty program is not currently under IRS examination.

The reason is simple: OVDP is a voluntary program and if you are only entering because you are already under IRS examination, then technically, you are not voluntarily entering the program – rather, you are doing so under duress.

Any account that would have to be included on either an FBAR or 8938 form as well as additional income generating assets such as rental properties are accounts that qualify under OVDP. It should be noted that the requirements are different for the modified streamlined program, in which the taxpayer penalties are limited to only assets that are actually listed on either an FBAR or 8938 form; thus the value of a rental property (reduced by any outstanding mortgage) would not be calculated into the penalty amount in a streamlined application, but it would be applicable in an OVDP submission.

Under this program, the Internal Revenue Service wants to know all of the income that was generated under these accounts that were not properly reported previously. The way the taxpayer accomplishes this is by amending tax returns for eight years.

Generally, if the taxpayer has not previously reported his accounts, then there are common forms which were probably excluded from the prior year’s tax returns and include 8938 Forms, Schedule B forms, 3520 Forms, 5471 Forms, 8621 Forms, as well as proof of filing of FBARs (Foreign Bank and Financial Account Reports).

OVDP Penalties

The taxpayer is required to pay the outstanding tax liability for the eight years within the disclosure period – as well as payment of interest along with another 20% penalty on that amount. For example: if the taxpayer owed $20,000 in taxes over the last eight years then they would also have to include in check the amount of $4,000 the cover the 20% penalty on the $20,000 in outstanding taxes, as well as estimated interest.

In accordance with OVDP filing requirements, the Applicant will then be required to pay the outstanding tax along with estimated interest, a 20% penalty on the outstanding tax, as well as an “FBAR” Penalty. The Penalty is 27.5% (or 50% if any of the foreign accounts are held at an IRS “Bad Bank”) on the highest year’s “annual aggregate total” of unreported accounts (accounts which were previously reported are not calculated into the penalty amount).

For OVDP, the annual aggregate total is determined by adding the “maximum value” of each unreported account for each year, in each of the last 8 years. To determine what the maximum value is, the taxpayer will add up the highest balances of all their accounts for each year. In other words, for each tax year within the compliance period, the application will locate the highest balance for each account for each year, and total up the values to determine the maximum value for each year.

Thereafter, the OVDP applicant selects the highest year’s value, and multiplies it by either 27.5%, or possibly 50% if any of the money was being held in what the IRS considers to be one of the “bad banks.” When a person is completing the penalty portion of the application, the two most important things are to breathe and remember that by entering the program, the applicant is seeking to avoid criminal prosecution!

The Streamlined Domestic Offshore Disclosure Program is a highly cost-effective method of quickly getting you into IRS (Internal Revenue Service) or DOT (Department of Treasury) compliance before it is too late!

What am I supposed to Report?

There are three (3) main aspects to dealing with foreign money. The first aspect is reporting your foreign account(s) the second aspect is reporting certain specified assets, and the third aspect is reporting your foreign money. While the IRS or DOJ will most likely not be kicking in your door and arresting you on the spot for failing to report, there are significantly high penalties associated with failing to comply.

In fact, the US government has the right to penalize you upwards of $10,000 per unreported account, per year for a six-year period if you are non-willful. If you are determined to be willful, the penalties can reach 100% value of the foreign accounts, including many other fines and penalties… Not the least being a criminal investigation.

Reporting Specified Foreign Assets – FATCA Form 8938

Not all foreign assets must be reported. With that said, a majority of assets do have to be reported on a form 8938. For example, if you have ownership of a foreign business interest or investment such as a limited liability share of a foreign corporation it may not need to be reported on the FBAR, but may need to be disclosed on an 8938.

The reason why you may get caught in the middle of whether it must be filed or not is due largely to the reporting thresholds of the 8938. For example, while the threshold requirements for the FBAR is when the foreign accounts exceed $10,000 in annual aggregate total – and is not impacted by marital status and country of residence – the same is not true of the 8938.

Whether or not you have the file in 8938 will depend on whether you are married filing jointly or married filing separate/single or whether you are considered a US resident or foreign resident.

Other Forms – Foreign Business

While the FBAR and 8938 are the two most common forms, please keep in mind that there are many many other forms that may need to be filed based on your specific facts and circumstances. For example:

If you are the Beneficiary of a foreign trust or receive a foreign gift you may have to file a 3520.

If you are the Owner of a foreign trust you will also have to file a 3520-A.

If you have certain Ownerships of a foreign corporation you have to file a 5471.

And (regrettably) if you fall into the unfortunate category of owning foreign mutual funds or any other Passive Foreign Investment Companies then you will have to file and 8621 and possibly be subject to significant tax liabilities in accordance with excess distributions.

Reporting Foreign Income

If you are considered a US tax resident, which normally means you are a US citizen, Legal Permanent Resident/Green-Card Holder or Foreign National subject to US tax under the substantial presence test then you will be taxed on your worldwide Income.

It does not matter if you earned the money in a foreign country, or if it is the type of income that is not taxed in the country of origin such as interest income in Asian countries. The fact of the matter is you are required to report this information on your US tax return, and pay any differential in tax that might be due.

In other words, if you earn $100,000 in Japan and paid 25% tax in Japan, you would receive a $25,000 tax credit against your foreign earnings. Thus, if your US tax liability would be less than $25,000 then you will receive a carryover to use in future years against foreign income (you do not get a refund and it cannot be used against US income). If you would have to pay the exact same in the United States as you did in Japan, it would equal itself out. If you would owe more money in the United States than you paid in Japan on the earnings (a.k.a. you are in a higher tax bracket) then you have to pay the difference to the U.S. Government.

What do you do if you reside outside of the United States and recently learned that you’re out of US tax compliance, have no idea what FATCA or FBAR means, and are under the misimpression that you are going to be arrested and hauled off to jail due to irresponsible blogging by inexperienced attorneys and accountants?

If you live overseas and qualify as a foreign resident (reside outside of the United States for at least 330 days in any one of the last three tax years or do not meet the Substantial Presence Test) you may be in for a pleasant surprise.

Even though you may be completely out of US tax and reporting compliance, you may qualify for a penalty waiver, and ALL of your disclosure penalties would be waived. Thus, all you will have to do besides reporting and disclosing the information is pay any outstanding tax liability and interest, if any is due.

*Under the Streamlined Foreign, you also have to amend or file 3 years of tax returns (and 8938s if applicable) as well as 6 years of FBAR statements just as in the Streamlined Domestic program.

When a Person, Estate or Business is out-of-tax compliance for failing to report Foreign Income, Foreign Income and/or Foreign Assets, the applicant has relatively few options for timely and safely getting into tax and foreign reporting compliance — before fines and penalties are issued.

While the most common options include the Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program or the Streamlined Offshore Disclosure Program, there is another alternative.

It is called making a Reasonable Cause submission.

Reasonable Cause – Process

An individual should never attempt offshore disclosure without the assistance of a qualified attorney. With that said, it is even more important to ensure that if you are even considering a reasonable cause submission, that you do so only with the help of an attorney. That is because only with an attorney do you receive the benefit of the attorney-client privilege.

Unlike the Streamlined Program or OVDP where there are strict procedures to be followed, a reasonable cause submission is different. It should be noted that a person can submit a reasonable cause application for any number of different reasons; it is not limited only to offshore money and reporting foreign accounts.

With a reasonable cause submission, the attorney will carefully evaluate and analyze the facts and circumstances of your case in detail. He or she should sit down with you either person or via teleconference if you are non-local and assess the pros and cons of the potential submission in order to determine what the benefits and detriments may be to a reasonable cause disclosure. Thereafter the attorney will amend the returns, prepare the necessary forms, and draft a persuasive Reasonable Cause Letter.

At Golding & Golding, we are Tax Attorneys (with Masters of Tax Law) and Enrolled Agents credentialed by the IRS (Highest Credential awarded by the IRS), so we handle your entire submission (Taxes, Legal, and Audit Defense) in-house, for a flat-fee.

Reasonable Cause – Potential Examples

If you were completely non-willful in your failure to disclosure, and were unaware that there was any reporting requirement, then the thought of paying any penalty may sound absurd. Here are three (3) common examples in which paying any penalty for your undisclosed foreign accounts may seem unfair

Example 1: Michael travels worldwide and has accounts in numerous different countries. He only uses the foreign money when he is in the foreign country at issue, and there is usually a relatively small amounts of money in each account. At one point Michael thought about purchasing a home overseas and left the money in the Foreign account for a significant period of time (including 12/31). Foreign Taxes were fully paid on the money deposited into the account and foreign taxes were paid on the income the account generated. The only issue is that he did not report the account and/or the foreign income on his U.S. Tax Return.

Example 2: Michelle moved to the United States over 15 years ago but has a Foreign pension from a private employer. The pension is worth upwards of $1 million. Michelle has not accessed the account, nor has she contributed (or anyone else contributed) since arriving in the United States. Since the account/earnings are not taxed in the US until distributed, and there have been no distributions, Michelle never reported the account on an FBAR or 8938.

Example 3: David has a foreign account, which he received as an inheritance. He never touched the money, and even though the account earns minimal annual income, there is no tax for passive income in this particular country

Reasonable Cause – Viable Option

As you can see from the aforementioned examples, none of these individuals had any intent whatsoever to perform tax evasion. Moreover, the amount of income earned is relatively minor compared to the outstanding amount in the foreign accounts. In addition, in the case of Michelle, the majority of her money is it a pension account which is not even taxed by the US. Thus, even under the streamlined program she would be paying $50,000 in penalties for an account in which all of the money was earned and reported timely in her foreign country and all foreign taxes were paid on the contributions.

Quiet Disclosure (otherwise known as “Silent Disclosure” or “Soft Disclosure”) of your foreign accounts and foreign income on an FBAR or late/amended tax return is a serious violation of U.S. Tax Law, which can subject you to very high fines, penalties and criminal investigation.

A Quiet Disclosure will only Make Matters Worse

In a quiet disclosure, the person does not enter the program but rather simply amends their tax returns to include the unreported foreign income (schedule B), report the foreign accounts (8938 forms) and file FBAR Statements with the Department of the Treasury.

Here’s the problem: If you were originally non-willful (in that you were unaware of the requirement to file an FBAR) but now you went ahead and willfully failed to pay the penalty, you may have bootstrapped your non-willful submission into full-blown tax fraud and tax evasion.

Why? Because you have now willfully evaded US tax, interest and penalties by knowingly filing an untimely FBAR or Amended Tax Return without payment penalty for money you know you earned in the past but had not paid any US tax on.

The Very Basics to Offshore/Foreign Reporting

Golding & Golding is a flat-fee, full-service firm; we are lawyers who assist international clients in reporting their offshore accounts to the IRS. Most recently, many of our clients learned about Foreign Bank Account reporting requirements when they received a FATCA Letter from their Bank, asking them to certify their U.S. Status by submitting either a W-9 or W-8 BEN.

Who Has to Report?

We have represented numerous clients worldwide with issues similar to yours:

– Expats who relocated overseas and did not know they had to report their foreign accounts.

– U.S. Citizens who live overseas and may or may not earn significant income, but have accounts in a foreign country.

– Legal Permanent Residents of the United States who relocate back to a foreign country but are unaware that they are still required to report the foreign accounts.

– Non-Residents who meet the substantial presence test and therefore are required to report foreign bank and other accounts to the US government.

Please do not worry. We can assist you as we have assisted hundreds of clients in over 40 countries disclose upwards of $40 million in a single disclosure.

We are available seven days a week and provide flat-fee and full-service representation to our clients around the world.

The Basics

These are the most basic rules when it comes to foreign accounts and foreign income:

Foreign Income

If you are either a US Citizen, Legal Permanent Resident (aka Green Card holder or recently gave up your Green Card) or foreign resident who meets the substantial presence test, then you are required to report your worldwide income to the IRS. This means that even if you do not have any US-based income, you are still required to report your worldwide income (even if it is the type of income which is not taxed in your home country such as interest and dividend income in most Asian countries). And, if you have enough foreign income to meet the minimum threshold for having to file a US tax return, then you are required to do so even if it is based on your foreign income alone.

Foreign Accounts

If you meet the requirement for being a U.S. “Taxpayer” (even if you do not meet the threshold for having to file a US tax return), you are still required to file an annual FBAR (Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts). The threshold is as follows: if at any time during the year, you have more than $10,000 in foreign accounts (whether the money is in one account or spread over numerous accounts), you are required to file an FBAR.

In addition, if you have significant amounts of money overseas, then you may also have to file additional forms such as an 8938 (FATCA Form) or 8621 (Passive Foreign Investment Company, which includes Foreign Mutual Funds along with as many other passive investments). There are many other forms you may have to file, but we determine those on a case-by-case basis.

Fines & Penalties

Unless you are criminal, chances are the IRS or Department of Justice will not be banging down your door to come drag you to jail. With that said, the fines and penalties can be very steep and depending on your particular circumstances, may include penalties upwards of 100% of the value of your foreign account. If the IRS believes you were willful (aka intentional), then they may launch a criminal investigation against you and the penalties and fines can get much worse from here, including Liens, Levies, Seizures…and worse.

Customs Holds and Passport Revocation

With the implementation of FATCA (Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act), the United States is heavily cracking down on offshore tax evasion and unreported foreign accounts in general. The IRS and US government have the power to both revoke your passport as well as possibly hold you at the airport “customs hold” to question you on the spot (usually outside the presence of your attorney).

Getting Into Compliance

Getting into compliance should be mandatory on your “to-do” list. Even though our firm, Golding & Golding, is based in Newport Beach, we represent clients worldwide. A majority of our clients live overseas in over 40 countries. We have helped numerous clients get into compliance and are regarded as one of the top Offshore Disclosure Law Firms worldwide.

To that end, there are three main methods of compliance:

(1) Streamlined Compliance

This program is for individuals who were unaware of any requirement to file an FBAR and/or report their income on a US tax return. The penalties under the streamlined program are significantly reduced and may possibly be waived depending on whether a person qualifies under the strict definition of foreign resident for offshore disclosure purposes.

(2) OVDP

This program is mainly for individuals and businesses who were willful, aka were aware they were supposed to report their foreign accounts but intentionally hid or kept the account/income information secret.

(3) Reasonable Cause Statement

This is not a particular program; instead, it is a method for getting to compliance while attempting to avoid any penalty. There are many pros and cons to this method depending on your specific situation, which must be evaluated carefully with your attorney before making a decision.

We provide a reduced fee telephone consultation to all potential clients (excluding CPAs, Lawyers, and/or other Tax Professionals) so that we can answer your questions. All calls are strictly confidential and the information is covered under the attorney-client privilege (even if you decide not to retain our firm).

OVDP & STREAMLINED SUCCESS!

- Significantly reduced an OVDP penalty by working with the IRS to evaluate a less common retirement plan, which the IRS agreed met the requirements under OVDP FAQ 55.

- Successfully Represented a Client to avoid involuntary removal from IRS OVDP when an inexperienced law firm took a client through OVDP but then tried to transition them under Streamlined Procedures, even though the client did not qualify for transition procedures due to the timing of the initial OVDP submission.

-Successfully represented a client who was represented by a firm that submitted a preclearance letter to the IRS for OVDP, even when they were completely non-willful (client unintentionally had accounts at multiple "bad banks"). Prior counsel did not understand the "Bad Bank" rules in relation to willful vs. non-willful, and was going to submit client into OVDP when it was not warranted. We were able to work with the IRS and client was approved for Streamlined Filing Compliance Procedures.

- Successfully Represented Highly Compensated Earners in a Streamlined Program Disclosure with more than 175 Accounts.

- Successfully represented a non-willful client through the Streamlined Program, even though he had multiple accounts at "Bad Banks" including accounts in a Tax Haven jurisdiction.

- Successfully received notification from the IRS of no penalties being issued against a high-income earning family with more than 20+ foreign accounts worldwide, including India and Canada. Based on their specific facts and circumstances, we were able to submit them using the Reasonable Cause option.

- Successfully completed a multi-person comprehensive disclosure matter for a family with submissions involving both Offshore Disclosure and Reasonable Cause applications.

- Acceptance of a Streamlined Domestic Offshore Disclosure Program submission for a client with multiple accounts, which had several U.S. Taxpayer signatories and more than $1,000,000 of funds in Costa Rica, and secured a full-penalty waiver.

- We successfully represented high-net-worth international taxpayers after their CPA fumbled an audit which left taxpayers with nearly $1,000,000 in penalties, and secured both spouses’ acceptance into the IRS Domestic Offshore Streamlined Program.